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Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used to describe the non-Communist states of Europe; as a result, geographically central and eastern countries that steered clear of Soviet influence during the Cold War are usually included, while Western members of the former Eastern Bloc are excluded.

Classical antiquity and medieval origins

As Roman domain expanded a cultural and linguistic division appeared between the mainly Greek-speaking eastern provinces which had formed the highly urbanized Hellenistic civilization. In contrast, the western territories largely adopted the Latin language. This cultural and linguistic division was eventually reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire

Post-war Europe would be divided into two major spheres: the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain.

Although some countries were officially neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political and economical systems. This division has largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe and its borders with Eastern Europe till this day.

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Eastern Europe

Trade blocs in 1988. EEC member states are marked in blue, EFTA – green, and Comecon – red.

Eastern Europe, in the view accepted after the second World War, was mainly composed of all the European countries occupied by the Soviet army. It included the German Democratic Republic, widely known as East Germany, formed by the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. All the countries in Eastern Europe had Communist regimes imposed upon them. Most of these countries were officially independent from the Soviet Union, but the practical extent of this independence was quite limited. In some matters many of them were little more than client-states of the Soviet Union.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (formed after World War II and before its later dismemberment) was not a member of the Warsaw Pact. It was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, an organization created in an attempt to avoid being assigned to any of the two blocs. It was demonstratively independent from the Soviet Union for most of the Cold War period, but because of its communist regime it was widely regarded part of the Eastern/communist bloc.

Albania broke with the Soviet Union in the early 1960s as a result of the Sino-Soviet split, aligning itself instead with China. Despite this, it had a communist regime and thus was considered part of the Eastern/communist bloc.

Italy, a former Axis Power which had surrendered and been occupied by the Western Allies.

Ireland gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1922. It remained neutral during the war. It never joined NATO but it joined the European Union in 1973.

The Nordic countries were special cases. Denmark and Norway had been conquered by Nazi Germany but were not liberated by the allies. During the war Iceland, then still united with Denmark under the kingdom of Denmark, had been invaded and occupied by the United Kingdom and the United States without any casualties of any nationality. Iceland proclaimed its full independence during the war.

Austria and Switzerland were also special cases. Austria had been incorporated into Nazi Germany through the Anschluss before the war, while Switzerland had remained neutral throughout the war. After the war both of them remained neutral, in the case of Austria through the Austrian State Treaty. Austria eventually joined the European Union but not NATO. Switzerland declined membership of NATO and the European Union but did join EFTA.

Portugal, Spain, and Greece, formerly under authoritarian regimes, became parliamentarian democracies in the mid-1970s. They subsequently joined the European Union. Spain and Greece joined NATO at around that time, but Portugal had been a founding member of NATO (1949) and EFTA (1960), during the Estado Novo regime (1932-1974).

The world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, leading to the German reunification. COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had been part of the Soviet Union regained their full independence.

Although the term Western Europe was largely defined of the Cold War, it still remains much in use. The term is commonly used in the media and in everyday use both in "western" and other regions of Europe.

Western Europe has increasingly less to do with the European Union.[citation needed] The 1995, 2004, and 2007 enlargements saw many post-communist countries joining the EU, and a view that Europe is divided strictly into the West and the East is sometimes considered patronising or pejorative by many in the countries of Central Europe[citation needed].

However, it should be noticed that this statistical division was designed during the Cold War period. According to the UN Statistics Division, the assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations.[5]

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 states, Russia is the largest by both area and population (although the country covers both Europe and Asia), while the Vatican City is the smallest. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 731 million or about 11% of the world's population.

Definition

A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the division of the world into 3 continents, allocated to the three sons of Noah

The use of the term "Europe" has developed gradually throughout history.[5][6] In antiquity, the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the Nile and the river Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the River Don, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.[7]Flavius Josephus and the Book of Jubilees described the continents as the lands given by Noah to his three sons; Europe was defined as between the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, separating it from Africa, and the Don, separating it from Asia.[8]

A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam, and limited to northern Iberia, the British Isles, France, Christianized western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.[9] The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance: "Europa" often figures in the letters of Charlemagne's cultural minister, Alcuin.[10] This division—as much cultural as geographical—was used until the Late Middle Ages, when it was challenged by the Age of Discovery.[11][12] The problem of redefining Europe was finally resolved in 1730 when, instead of waterways, the Swedish geographer and cartographer von Strahlenberg proposed the Ural Mountains as the most significant eastern boundary, a suggestion that found favour in Russia and throughout Europe.[13]

Europe is now generally defined by geographers as the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, with its boundaries marked by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the far east are usually taken to be the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to the south-east, the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.[14]

Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used geographical boundaries[18] (legend:
blue = states in both Europe and Asia; green = sometimes included within Europe but geographically outside Europe's boundaries)

Most major world languages use words derived from "Europa" to refer to the "continent" (peninsula). Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu (歐羅巴洲); however, in some Turkic languages the name Frengistan (land of the Franks) is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.[23]

Homo georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia, is the earliest hominid to have been discovered in Europe.[24] Other hominid remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.[25]Neanderthal man (named for the Neander Valley in Germany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago and disappeared from the fossil record about 30,000 years ago. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who appeared in Europe around 40,000 years ago.[26]

During the Dark Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively.[41] Eventually the Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I.[42]Charlemagne, a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in 800. This led to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe.[43]

The Battle of Crécy in 1346, from a manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles; the battle established England as a military power.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Pechenegs and the Kipchaks, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north.[50] Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongols.[51] The invaders, later known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which ruled the southern and central expanses of Russia for over three centuries.[52]

The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.[53] The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced by half.[54][55] Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,[56] and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.[57] Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the European population at the time.[58]

The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence and later spreading to the rest of Europe. in the 14th century. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries and the Islamic world.[62][63][64] The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art, philosophy, music, and the sciences, under the joint patronage of royalty, the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church, and an emerging merchant class.[65][66][67] Patrons in Italy, including the Medici family of Florentine bankers and the Popes in Rome, funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.[68][69]

Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the Great Schism. During this forty-year period, two popes—one in Avignon and one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church. Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered greatly.[70]

The Church's power was further weakened by the Protestant Reformation (1517–1648), initially sparked by the works of German theologian Martin Luther, a result of the lack of reform within the Church. The Reformation also damaged the Holy Roman Empire's power, as German princes became divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths.[71] This eventually led to the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), which crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40 percent of its population.[72] In the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia, France rose to predominance within Europe.[73] The 17th century in southern and eastern Europe was a period of general decline.[74] Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 to 1700.[75]

This balance would remain in place until the Revolutions of 1848, during which liberal uprisings affected all of Europe except for Russia and Great Britain. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative elements and few reforms resulted.[89] In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed; and 1871 saw the unifications of both Italy and Germany as nation-states from smaller principalities.[90]

By the end of World War II, the European economy had collapsed with 70% of the industrial infrastructure destroyed.

In 1933, Hitler became the leader of Germany and began to work towards his goal of building Greater Germany. Germany re-expanded and took back the Saarland and Rhineland in 1935 and 1936. In 1938, Austria became a part of Germany too, following the Anschluss. Later that year, Germany annexed the German Sudetenland, which had become a part of Czechoslovakia after the war. This move was highly contested by the other powers, but ultimately permitted in the hopes of avoiding war and appeasing Hitler.

Shortly afterwards, Poland and Hungary started to press for the annexation of parts of Czechoslovakia with Polish and Hungarian majorities. Hitler encouraged the Slovaks to do the same and in early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by Germany, and the Slovak Republic, while other smaller regions went to Poland and Hungary. With tensions mounting between Germany and Poland over the future of Danzig, the Germans turned to the Soviets, and signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the European theatre of World War II.[104][105] The Soviet invasion of Poland started on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter.

On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the Baltic countries and later, Finland. The British hoped to land at Narvik and send troops to aid Finland, but their primary objective in the landing was to encircle Germany and cut the Germans off from Scandinavian resources. Nevertheless, the Germans knew of Britain's plans and got to Narvik first, repulsing the attack. Around the same time, Germany moved troops into Denmark, which left no room for a front except for where the last war had been fought or by landing at sea. The Phoney War continued.

After the staggering Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. In 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finally fell in 1945, ending World War II in Europe.

The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across the world.[110] More than 40 million people in Europe had lost their lives by the time World War II ended,[111] including between 11 and 17 million people who perished during the Holocaust.[112] The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, about half of all World War II casualties.[113] By the end of World War II, Europe had more than 40 million refugees.[114] Several post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people.[115]

World War I and especially World War II diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. After World War II the map of Europe was redrawn at the Yalta Conference and divided into two blocs, the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by Winston Churchill an "iron curtain". The United States and Western Europe
established the NATO alliance and later the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe established the Warsaw Pact.[116]

The first border definition was introduced in 5th Century B.C. by the "father of history" Herodotus, when he regarded Europe to be extending to the Eastern Ocean, and being as long as (and much larger than) Africa and Asia together. He marked the borders between Europe and Asia on Kura River and Rioni River in Transcaucasia.[121] The 1st century AD geographer Strabo, took the River Don "Tanais" to be the boundary to the Black Sea,[122] as did early Judaic sources.[citation needed]

Because of sociopolitical and cultural differences, there are various descriptions of Europe's boundary; in some sources, some territories are not included in Europe, while other sources include them. For instance, geographers from Russia and other post-Soviet states generally include the Urals in Europe while including Caucasia in Asia. Similarly, Cyprus is approximate to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is often considered part of Europe and currently is a member state of the EU. In addition, Malta was considered an island of Africa for centuries.[123]

Physical geography

Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain, and at its heart lies the North German Plain. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut, spine of Norway.

This description is simplified. Sub-regions such as the Iberian Peninsula and the Italian Peninsula contain their own complex features, as does mainland Central Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. Sub-regions like Iceland, Britain and Ireland are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off.

The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the Gulf Stream.[124] The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore the average temperature throughout the year of Naples is 16 °C (60.8 °F), while it is only 12 °C (53.6 °F) in New York City which is almost on the same latitude. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in the Asian part of Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around 8 °C (15 °F) higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost 22 °C (40 °F) higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk.[124]

Geology

The Geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary.[125]

Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous Southern Europe and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Ireland in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and Alps/Carpathians. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the Scandinavian Mountains and the mountainous parts of the British Isles. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are the Celtic Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea complex and Barents Sea.

The northern plain contains the old geological continent of Baltica, and so may be regarded geologically as the "main continent", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in the south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents. Most of the older geology of Western Europe existed as part of the ancient microcontinentAvalonia.

Geological history

The geological history of Europe traces back to the formation of the Baltic Shield (Fennoscandia) and the Sarmatian craton, both around 2.25 billion years ago, followed by the Volgo-Uralia shield, the three together leading to the East European craton (≈ Baltica) which became a part of the supercontinentColumbia. Around 1.1 billion years ago, Baltica and Arctica (as part of the Laurentia block) became joined to Rodinia, later resplitting around 550 million years ago to reform as Baltica. Around 440 million years ago Euramerica was formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining with Gondwana then leading to the formation of Pangea. Around 190 million years ago, Gondwana and Laurasia split apart due to the widening of the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, and very soon afterwards, Laurasia itself split up again, into Laurentia (North America) and the Eurasian continent. The land connection between the two persisted for a considerable time, via Greenland, leading to interchange of animal species. From around 50 million years ago, rising and falling sea levels have determined the actual shape of Europe, and its connections with continents such as Asia. Europe's present shape dates to the late Tertiary period about five million years ago.[126]

Biodiversity

Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch

Having lived side-by-side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. With the exception of Fennoscandia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various national parks.

The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed forest. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these (Alps, Pyrenees) are oriented east-west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are oriented south-north (Scandinavian Mountains, Dinarides, Carpathians, Apennines) and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards sea, forests grow well on this side, while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. Few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by livestock at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems.

Probably eighty to ninety per cent of Europe was once covered by forest.[127] It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of deforestation, Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the taiga of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed rainforests of the Caucasus and the Cork oak forests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monoculture plantations of conifers have replaced the original mixed natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2–3% or less, in European Russia 5–10%. The country with the smallest percentage of forested area (excluding the micronations) is Iceland (1%), while the most forested country is Finland (77%).[128]

In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both broadleaf and coniferous trees dominate. The most important species in central and western Europe are beech and oak. In the north, the taiga is a mixed spruce–pine–birch forest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives way to tundra as the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, many olive trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate; Mediterranean Cypress is also widely planted in southern Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east-west tongue of Eurasian grassland (the steppe) extends eastwards from Ukraine and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north.

Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the presence of man affected the distribution of European fauna. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have been hunted to extinction. The woolly mammoth was extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. Today wolves (carnivores) and bears (omnivores) are endangered. Once they were found in most parts of Europe. However, deforestation and hunting caused these animals to withdraw further and further. By the Middle Ages the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with sufficient forest cover. Today, the brown bear lives primarily in the Balkan peninsula, Scandinavia, and Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe (Austria, Pyrenees etc.), but in these areas brown bear populations are fragmented and marginalised because of the destruction of their habitat. In addition, polar bears may be found on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago far north of Scandinavia. The wolf, the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in pockets of Western Europe (Scandinavia, Spain, etc.).

[[File:|thumb|Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, European bison now live in nature preserves in Poland, Russia, and other parts of Eastern Europe]]

European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs, different species of reptiles (like snakes such as vipers and grass snakes) and amphibians, different birds (owls, hawks and other birds of prey).

Important European herbivores are snails, larvae, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deer and roe deer, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamois among others.

In some countries, such as Ireland and Poland, access to abortion is currently limited; in the past, such restrictions and also restrictions on artificial birth control were commonplace throughout Europe. Abortion remains illegal on the island of Malta where Catholicism is the state religion. Furthermore, three European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland) and the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain)[131][132] have allowed a limited form of voluntary euthanasia for some terminally ill people.

In 2005, the population of Europe was estimated to be 731 million according to the United Nations,[133] which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population. A century ago, Europe had nearly a quarter of the world's population.[134] The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in other areas of the world (in particular Africa and Asia) the population has grown far more quickly.[133] Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high population density, second only to Asia. The most densely populated country in Europe is the Netherlands, ranking third in the world after Bangladesh and South Korea. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities.[135]

According to UN population projection, Europe's population may fall to about 7% of world population by 2050, or 653 million people (medium variant, 556 to 777 million in low and high variants, respectively).[133] Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation to fertility rates. The average number of children per female of child bearing age is 1.52.[136] According to some sources,[137] this rate is higher among Muslims in Europe. The UN predicts the steady population decline of vast areas of Eastern Europe.[138] The Russia's population is declining by at least 700,000 people each year.[139] The country now has 13,000 uninhabited villages.[140]

Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.6 million people, the IOM's report said.[141] In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from immigration of 1.8 million people, despite having one of the highest population densities in the world. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total population growth.[142] The European Union plans to open the job centres for legal migrant workers from Africa.[143][144] In 2008, 696,000 persons were given citizenship of an EU27 member state, a decrease from 707,000 the previous year. The largest groups that acquired citizenship of an EU member state were citizens of Morocco, Turkey, Ecuador, Algeria and Iraq.[145]

Emigration from Europe began with Spanish settlers in the 16th century, and French and English settlers in the 17th century.[146] But numbers remained relatively small until waves of mass emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poor families left Europe.[147]

Today, large populations of European descent are found on every continent. European ancestry predominates in North America, and to a lesser degree in South America (particularly in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Centro-Sul of Brazil). Also, Australia and New Zealand have large European derived populations. Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities, but there are significant minorities, such as the White South Africans. In Asia, European-derived populations (specifically Russians) predominate in Northern Asia.

Within the above-mentioned states are several regions, enjoying broad autonomy, as well as several de facto independent countries with limited international recognition or unrecognised. None of them are UN members:

Economy

As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth and it is the richest region as measured by assets under management with over $32.7 trillion compared to North America's $27.1 trillion in 2008.[151] In 2009 Europe remained the wealthiest region. Its $37.1 trillion in assets under management represented one-third of the world’s wealth. It was one of several regions where wealth surpassed its precrisis year-end peak.[152] As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of wealth among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the West; some of the Eastern economies are still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

The European Union, an intergovernmental body composed of 27 European states, comprises the largest single economic area in the world. Currently, 16 EU countries share the euro as a common currency.
Five European countries rank in the top ten of the worlds largest national economies in GDP (PPP). This includes (ranks according to the CIA): Germany (5), the UK (6), Russia (7), France (8), and Italy (10).[153]

Pre–1945: Industrial growth

Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.[154] From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe.[155] The Industrial Revolution started in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century,[156] and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies were disrupted by World War I but by the beginning of World War II they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. World War II, again, damaged much of Europe's industries.

1945–1990: The Cold War

[[File:|thumb|right|Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.]]
After World War II the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin,[157] and continued to suffer relative economic decline in the following decades.[158] Italy was also in a poor economic condition but regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. West Germany recovered quickly and had doubled production from pre-war levels by the 1950s.[159] France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of Franco, also recovered, and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the Spanish miracle.[160] The majority of Eastern European states came under the control of the USSR and thus were members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON).[161]

The states which retained a free-market system were given a large amount of aid by the United States under the Marshall Plan.[162] The western states moved to link their economies together, providing the basis for the EU and increasing cross border trade. This helped them to enjoy rapidly improving economies, while those states in COMECON were struggling in a large part due to the cost of the Cold War. Until 1990, the European Community was expanded from 6 founding members to 12. The emphasis placed on resurrecting the West German economy led to it overtaking the UK as Europe's largest economy.

1991–2007: Integration and reunification

With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1991 the Eastern states had to adapt to a free market system. There were varying degrees of success with Central European countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia adapting reasonably quickly, while eastern states like Ukraine and Russia taking far longer. Western Europe helped Eastern Europe by forming economic ties with it.[citation needed]

After East and West Germany were reunited in 1990, the economy of West Germany struggled as it had to support and largely rebuild the infrastructure of East Germany. Yugoslavia lagged farthest behind as it was ravaged by war and in 2003 there were still many EU and NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with only Slovenia making any real progress.

By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe comprising the five largest European economies of the time namely Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined the Eurozone replacing their former national currencies by the common euro. The three who chose to remain outside the Eurozone were: the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden.

2008–2010: Recession

The Eurozone entered its first official recession in the third quarter of 2008, official figures confirmed in January 2009.[163] While beginning in the United States the late-2000s recession spread to Europe rapidly and has affected much of the region.[164] The official unemployment rate in the 16 countries that use the euro rose to 9.5% in May 2009.[165] Europe's young workers have been especially hard hit.[166] In the first quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate in the EU27 for those aged 15–24 was 18.3%.[167]

In early 2010 fears of a sovereign debt crisis[168] developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.[169] As a result, measures were taken especially for Greece by the leading countries of the Eurozone.[170]

Romance languages are spoken primarily in south-western Europe as well as in Romania and Moldova. Germanic languages are spoken in north-western Europe and some parts of Central Europe. Slavic languages are spoken in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.[126]

Culture

The culture of Europe can be described as a series of overlapping cultures; cultural mixes exist across the continent. There are cultural innovations and movements, sometimes at odds with each other. Thus the question of "common culture" or "common values" is complex.

Notes

^a: Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below may be in one or both of Europe and Asia, or Africa.^b:Transnistria, internationally recognised as being a legal part of the Republic of Moldova, although de facto control is exercised by its internationally unrecognised government which declared independence from Moldova in 1990.^c: Russia is considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. However the population and area figures include the entire state.^d:Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey are Crown Dependencies of the United Kingdom. Other Channel Islands legislated by the Bailiwick of Guernsey include Alderney and Sark.^e:Cyprus is sometimes considered transcontinental country. Physiographically entirely in Western Asia it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The population and area figures refer to the entire state, including the de facto independent part Northern Cyprus.^f: Figures for Portugal include the Azores and Madeira archipelagos, both in Northern Atlantic.^g: Figures for Serbia include Kosovo, a province that unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, and whose sovereign status is unclear.^h: Figures for France include only metropolitan France: some politically integral parts of France are geographically located outside Europe.^i:Netherlands population for July 2004. Population and area details include European portion only: Netherlands and two entities outside Europe (Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, in the Caribbean) constitute the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Amsterdam is the official capital, while The Hague is the administrative seat.^j:Kazakhstan is physiographically considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe, with European territory west of the Ural Mountains and both the Ural and Emba rivers. However, area and population figures refer to the entire country.^k:Armenia is physiographically entirely in Western Asia, but it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The population and area figures include the entire state respectively.^l:Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. However the population and area figures are for the entire state. This includes the exclave of Nakhchivan and the region Nagorno-Karabakh that has declared, and de factoachieved, independence. Nevertheless, it is not recognised de jure by sovereign states.^m:Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe. However, the population and area figures include the entire state. This also includes Georgian estimates for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that have declared and de factoachieved independence. The International recognition, however, is limited.^n:Turkey is physiographically considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia and Eastern Europe. However the population and area figures include the entire state, both the European and Asian portions.^o: The total figures for area and population include only European portions of transcontinental countries. The precision of these figures is compromised by the ambiguous geographical extent of Europe and the lack of references for European portions of transcontinental countries.^p:Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. Its sovereign status is unclear. Its population is July 2009 CIA estimate.^r:Abkhazia and South Ossetia unilaterally declared their independence from Georgia on 25 August 1990 and 28 November 1991 respectively. Their sovereign status is unclear. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively.^Russia Khazakstan: Russia and Khazakstan are first and second largest but both these figures include European and Asian territories

From Wikitravel

Contents

Europe[1] encompasses an area of
10,400,000 km² (4,000,000 square miles), stretching from Asia to
the Atlantic, and from Africa to the Arctic. It is one of the
world’s seven continents. European countries welcome more than 480
million international visitors per year, more than half of the
global market, and 7 of the 10 most visited countries are European
nations. It's easy to see why - a well preserved cultural heritage,
open borders and efficient infrastructure makes visiting Europe a
breeze, and rarely will you have to travel more than a few hours
before you can immerse yourself in a new culture, and dive into a
different Phrasebook.

Understand

History

Europe probably has more human history packed into it than any
place on the earth. Starting with ancient Greece and the Roman
Empire, the spread of Christianity, the Viking Age, through the
Renaissance, to the development of the nation states which explored
the world and built empires (Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, France
and the Netherlands), and in the past century the World Wars and
the growth of the European Union, ... in Europe you won't go short
on history.

Geography

Europe's longest river is the Volga, which meanders 3,530 km
(2,193 miles) through Russia, and flows into the Caspian Sea.
Europe's highest point is Russia's Mt. Elbrus, which rises to 5,642
m (18,510 feet) above sea level. Western Europe's highest point is
Mont Blanc in the French-Italian Alps, which rises to 4,810 m
(15,771 feet) above sea level. Other important high mountain ranges
include the Pyrenees between France and Spain and the Carpathians
that run through Central Europe to the Balkans. Cyprus is also
considered part of Europe.

Climate

Europe's climate ranges from subtropical near the Mediterranean
Sea in the south, to subarctic near the Barents Sea and Arctic
Ocean in the northern latitudes. There is much here for the
traveller to enjoy, with a bewildering array of diversity and
languages and culture, cosmopolitan cities and spectacular scenery,
let alone some of the leading cities of the world.

Stonehenge - The
well-known Neolithic and Bronze Age stone monument located on
Salisbury Plain.

Countries

Europe is a continent of many wildly different countries. A
subset of these countries are in the slow and painful process of
coming together as the European Union (EU).

Not all EU countries have adopted the euro (€),
the European Union single currency (see Buy), while a few countries outside the EU have
adopted it. Likewise, most — but not all — EU members and a few
non-EU countries have have joined the Schengen
agreement, which abolished border controls between them
(see Get in). Here is a handy
reference table, up to date as of 2009:

Get in

Rules for entering Europe depend on where you are going. EU/EFTA
citizens can travel freely throughout the continent (except Russia, Belarus and the Caucasus), so the following assumes you are
not one.

while British subjects with the right of abode in the
United Kingdom and British Overseas Territories citizens connected
to Gibraltar are considered "United Kingdom nationals for European
Union purposes" and therefore eligible for unlimited
access to the Schengen Area,

British Overseas Territories citizens without the
right of abode in the United Kingdom and British subjects
without the right of abode in the United Kingdom as well
as British Overseas citizens and British protected persons in
general do require visas.

However, all British Overseas Territories citizens except those
solely connected to the Cyprus Sovereign Base Areas are eligible
for British citizenship and thereafter unlimited access to the
Schengen Area.

(**) Serbian citizens with passports issued by the Serbian
Coordination Directorate (Serbs residing in Kosovo) still
do need a visa.

It is important to note that the 90 days visa-free stay applies
for the whole Schengen area, i.e. it is not 90 days per
country as some assume. Citizens of the above countries who wish to
travel around Europe for longer than 90 days must apply for a
residency permit. This can be done in any Schengen country, but
Germany or Italy are recommended, because many other countries
require applicants to apply from their home countries.

Non-Schengen countries, on the other hand,
maintain their own immigration policies. Consult the country
article in question for details. If you wish to visit a
non-Schengen country and return to the Schengen area, you will need
a multiple-entry visa. It should be noted that Bulgaria, Romania,
Ireland, and the United Kingdom are EU members, but they are not
part of the Schengen Area. To add confusion Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway are not EU members but part of the
Schengen area.

The implications of this are simple: countries in the EU
maintain similar customs controls. Therefore, one does not need to
pass through customs when travelling to a non-Schengen EU country,
but they may need to pass through immigration controls. The
converse is true for non-EU Schengen countries: you must pass
through customs, but not immigration.

By plane

The largest air travel hubs in Europe are, in order, London (LON: LCY, LHR,
LGW, STN, LTN), Frankfurt (FRA, HHN), Paris (CDG, ORY), and
Madrid (MAD)
which in turn have connections to practically everywhere in Europe.
However, nearly every European city has direct long-distance
flights at least to some destinations elsewhere, and other smaller
airports can make sense for specific connections: for example,
Vienna (VIE)
has a very good network of flights to the Middle East and Eastern Europe, while
Helsinki
(HEL) is the geographically closest place to transfer if coming in
from East Asia. Western
Europe is the largest air hub in the world with London, Paris,
Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Dublin, Manchester, Brussels all within an
hours flying distance from each other. From East Asia, Hong Kong and Bangkok are served by long-haul
flights to most major European cities.

By ship

It is still possible, but expensive, to do the classic
transatlantic voyage between the United Kingdom and the United
States. The easiest option is by the historic, and only remaining
Ocean Liner operator, Cunard Line[3],
but expect to pay 1000-2000 USD for the 6 day voyage between
Southampton and New York done around 10 times per year in each
direction. If your pockets are not deep enough for this price
range, your only other options of crossing the Atlantic are pretty
much limited to Freighter travel. There are several
lines crossing the Mediterranean, the main ports of call in North
Africa is Tangier in Morocco and Tunis in Tunisia (See Ferries in the
Mediterranean for more details), but there is also a little
known option of going via Cyprus where you can use Louis Cruises crossings to
Port Said in Egypt and Haifa in Israel as a regular ferry service. Keep in mind
though, that you can only do this on routes out of Cyprus, and it
requires special arrangements - Varianos
Travel in Nicosia seem
to be the only tour agency offering this option.

Get around

There are no border controls between countries that have signed
and implemented the Schengen
Agreement. Likewise, a visa granted for any Schengen
Agreement signatory country is valid in all other countries that
signed and implemented the treaty. Be careful: not all EU members
have signed the Schengen treaty, and not all Schengen treaty
countries are members of the European Union. See the table above for the current
list.

Airports in Europe are thus divided into "Schengen" and
"non-Schengen" sections, which effectively act like "domestic" and
"international" sections elsewhere. If you are flying from outside
Europe into one Schengen country and continuing to another, you
will clear Immigration and Customs at the first country and then
continue to your destination with no further checks.

Travel to and from a Schengen Agreement country to any other
country will result in the normal border checks. Note that,
regardless of whether you traveling within Schengen or not, at some
airports, airlines will still insist on seeing your ID card or
passport.

Especially in Western and Central Europe, the trains are fast,
efficient and cost-competitive with flying. High-speed trains like
the French TGV, the German ICE, the Spanish AVE and the
cross-border Eurostar and Thalys services speed along at up to 320
km/h (200 mph) and, when taking into account travel time to the
airport and back, are often faster than taking the plane. The flip
side is that tickets bought on the spot can be expensive, although
there are good discounts available if you book in advance or take
advantage of various deals. In particular, the Inter Rail (for
Europeans) and Eurail (for
everybody else) passes offer good value if you plan on traveling
extensively around Europe (or even a single region) and want more
flexibility than cheap plane tickets can offer.

The most extensive and most reliable train travel planner for
all of Europe is the one belonging to the German railways (DB),
which can be found here in
English.

EU Passenger Rights

European Union (EU) Regulation 261/2004 of 17. February 2005
[4] gives certain rights to passenger on all flights, schedule
or charter and flights provided as part of a Package Holiday. It
only applies to passengers flying from an EU airport or from an
airport outside the EU to an EU airport on an EU carrier.

Denied Boarding

If:

you have a valid ticket

you have a confirmed reservation

you have checked in by the deadline given to you by the
airline

Then you are entitled to a compensation, which is:

€250 if the flight is shorter than
1500 km

but only €125 if it is delayed less
than 2 hours

€400 if the flight is between 1500 km
and 3500 km

but only €200 if it is delayed less
than 3 hours

€600 if the flight is longer than 3500
km

but only €300 if it is delayed less
than 4 hours

and a refund of your ticket (with a free
flight back to your initial point of departure, when relevant)

or alternative transport to your final
destination.

The airline also have to cover the following expenses:

two telephone calls or emails, telexes or faxes

meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting
time.

hotel accommodation if you are delayed overnight.

Usually they will give you a prepaid phone card, and vouchers
for a restaurant and a hotel.

Refund for delayed flight

If your flight is delayed 5 hours or longer you can get a refund
of your ticket (with a free flight back to your initial point of
departure, when relevant).

All flights within and from the European Union limit
liquids, gels and creams in hand baggage to 100
mL/container, carried in a transparent, zip-lock plastic bag (1L or
less). The bag must be presented during security checks and only
one bag per passenger is permitted.

Discount airlines

Dozens of budget airlines allow very cheap travel around Europe,
often much cheaper than the train or even bus fares for the same
journey, although this fact should be balanced with consideration
to the enviromental impact of short distant flights and the hassle
of the airport experience. Currently the cheapest flights are
offered by low cost airlines such as
AirBerlin, Germanwings, EasyJet, Tuifly, Ryanair and WizzAir, with
the lowest fares usually found on routes which go to or from cities
in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. All of these flights
should be booked on the internet well in advance, otherwise the
price advantage may become non-existent. Always compare prices with
major carriers like British Airways, Austrian Airlines or
Lufthansa! Only in very few cases prices are higher than € 80 on
any airline when booking a month or more ahead of time (except on
very long routes e.g. Dublin - Istanbul). You should also make sure
where the airport is located, since some low cost airlines name
very small airports by the next major city, even if the distance is
up to two hours drive by bus (e.g. Ryan- and Wizzair's Frankfurt-Hahn, which is not
Frankfurt/Main International).

By bus

Eurolines[5] connects over 500
destinations, covering the whole of the continent and Morocco.
Eurolines allows travelling from Sicily to Helsinki and from Casablanca to Moscow.

For longer distances, travelling by bus often isn't any cheaper
than flying with a low cost airline. It's worth considering if you
travel at short notice, wish to see the countryside you are
traveling through, have heavy luggage, or are keen on reducing your
travel-related CO2
emissions.

The Baltic sea has several lines running
between the major cities (for example Gdansk, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga
etc). Most ships are very large, parallelling Caribbean cruise
liners in size and in service.

In the Atlantic, Smyril Line [11] is the only company
sailing to the rather remote North Atlantic islands; Iceland and the Faroe Islands It
sails from Denmark, which
also host numerous lines to Norway and Sweden. From the British
isles a huge number of lines still cross the English channel to
France, despite the opening of the channel-tunnel. And there are
also numerous services to Denmark, the Benelux and even across the Biscay to Spain. Further south there is a
weekly service from Portimão to the Canary Islands via the remote volcanic
Madeira island.

In the Mediterranean Sea a large number of
ferries and cruise ships operate between SpainItaly
and Southern France. And
across the Italian peninsular ferries also ply across the Adriatic
sea to Croatia and Greece, with Bari as the main terminal (out of many).

And finally The Black Sea also has several
ferries plying across it's waters, albeit service can be fairly
sketchy at times. PotiIstanbul and Sevastopol are the main
ports, but nearly all the Black Sea ports has a ferry going
somewhere, but rarely anywhere logical - i.e. often along the
coast.

There are also various ferries on the larger lakes and for
crossing rivers. Furthermore, there are several regularly running
cruise-lines on the larger rivers like the Rhine, Danube and the Volga. And boating excursions within
Europe, particularly along the scenic rivers and between many of
the islands in the Mediterranean , are an excellent way to combine
travel between locations with an adventure along the way.
Accommodations range from very basic to extremely luxurious
depending upon the company and class of travel selected. Another
famous line is the Hurtigruten cruise-ferries which sails
all along Norways amazing coastline and fjords.

Speed limit

End of speed limit

Stop

Yield

Priority Street

Priority Street ends

No overtaking

No parking

European route

The ease of driving on the continent varies greatly, and as a
general rule east and west of the old iron curtain are two
different worlds. Western (old) Europe for the most part have good
road conditions and a extensive and well developed highway network,
whereas Eastern (new) Europe are still working hard on the great
backlog left behind from socialist days. During vacations,
especially during summer and Christmas vacations, driving on the
highways can be hellish, particularly in Germany (listen for the
word Stau in the automated traffic broadcasts).

There are no uniform speed limits across the union, but the
fabled free speed limits are rapidly becoming a thing of the past,
and are now limited to a few sections of rural autobahn in Germany.
The majority of highways have a 110-130 kph (70-80
mph) speed limit. For North Americans a major difference is the
right lane on highways are not the "fast lane" you're used to, but
rather the "passing lane", it's illegal to overtake on the left, so
you should only occupy the outer lane when you are overtaking
someone, stay there, and you will have other vehicles tailgating
while flashing their lights in annoyance. Remember to use turn
signals when changing lanes.

Except for priority streets (check the symbol in the table)
there is a general duty to give way to traffic from your right in
crossings and intersections, and other drivers have every
expectation you adhere to this. But in the ubiquitous roundabouts
(circles) you find everywhere across the continent, cars already in
the circle always have the right of way, don't give way to incoming
drivers while in the roundabout, or you will mess up the system,
potentially causing some nasty accidents. Finally, don't do right
turns on red lights, it's illegal, and because it's not common
practice, also dangerous.

Avoid large cities if you are not used to
driving in Europe. Most city centres were build long before the
introduction of the auto-mobile, and were not meant to cope with
the levels of traffic common these days. So for the most part it's
a slow, frustrating and potentially dangerous experience, and even
then, finding a parking spot can potentially take hours and cost an
arm and a leg when you finally find it. Instead Park at the
outskirts of town, where it is often free, and use the public
transit system instead. If you are renting, try to work around
having a car while visiting big cities.

Age: Almost everywhere, especially in the EU,
you need to be 18 years old to drive, even supervised, and in
countries with Learning schemes, it's usually an exhaustive
procedure to get a permit, and rarely applicable to foreign
citizens anyway. Exceptions include Portugal, Ireland and the
UK.

Equipment

A warning triangle is compulsory nearly anywhere, and so is
using it in case of breakdowns.

A black and white, 2-3 letter country identity sticker is
compulsory for cars without EU license plates.

International driving permit, while it's not compulsory for
certain nationalities in some European countries, it's cheap, and
could potentially save you from nasty incidents with
authorities.

If you plan on renting a car for driving across
Europe, it often makes sense to check the rates in different
countries rather than just hire a car in the country of arrival.
The price differences can be very substantial for longer rentals,
to an extent where it can make sense to adjust your travel plans
accordingly. I.e. if you plan on travelling around Scandinavia by
car, it will often be much cheaper to fly into Germany and rent a
car there. Compared to North America, you should be prepared for
smaller, but more efficient cars, and automatics are for the most
part a rare premium, never expect one without requesting it while
placing your order.

In any case driving in Europe is an expensive
proposition, gas prices hovers around $7-8 per gallon (€1.30-1.50
per litre) in much of western Europe, while often slightly cheaper
in Eastern Europe. Rentals are around 2-3 more expensive than in
North America, Highway tolls are very common, city centre
congestion charges increasingly so, and even parking can work up to
€50 ($70) per day in the most expensive cities. Driving can be an
enjoyable and feasible way to see the country side, but most
Europeans would find a vacation to say, Paris, Brussels and
Amsterdam, in a rented car completely laughable.

By thumb

Hitchhiking is a
common way of travelling in some parts of Europe, especially in
former eastern bloc countries. It can be a pleasant way to meet
lots of people, and to travel without spending too many euros.
Don't forget to check out the tips for hitchhiking.

Note that in the former eastern bloc, you may run into language
problems while hitchhiking, especially if you speak only English.
It is not advisable to hitchhike in former Yugoslavia, for example
between Croatia and Serbia, because you could run into big problems
with nationalists. Between Croatia and Slovenia it's not a problem.
In Moldova and the Ukraine, it's better to take train or bus. In
western Europe, especially in the Netherlands and Germany, it's
easy and fast to hitchhike.

Music Despite an ever growing competition from
the United States and nations with new found wealth, Europe is
still the spiritual home of classical music and Opera, and the
various European capitals are home to some amazing 'old world'
opera houses, where the hundreds of years of history, often
enhances the experience into something otherworldly. But if opera
singers give you a headache, and you would much rather head-bang,
fear not, Europe has more music festivals than your liver will ever
hold up to; the Roskilde Festival[12] in Roskilde, Sziget
fesztivál[13] in Budapest and
finally reigning champion Glastonbury[14] weighing in
at 100.000 drunk souls, are widely considered the 3 big ones, but
many other ones are not the slightest bit small.

Professional Sports Perhaps no other field has
seen stronger European integration than sports, most professional
sports has Europe wide leagues in place, and nearly every sport has
a bi-annual European Championship.

Football If you are already a soccer fan the
game hardly gets any better than watching your favourite team
battle it out against the world's greatest football clubs in the
Champions League[15] or the
Europa League[16]. Games
in the pan European leagues usually takes place mid-week to allow
for games in the national leagues to take place during the weekend.
For the popular teams the tickets are often old out week's in
advance.

Basketball The pan European
Euroleague[17] is the highest tier of
professional basketball in Europe, featuring teams from 18
different European countries and some of the best basketball you'll
find outside the NBA. The regular season runs Oct-Jan and play-offs
takes place between Jan-May.

Handball Also sees a annual pan European
tournament, the Champions League[18] taking place every year.
While the sport is little known outside Europe, it's one of the
most popular sports on the continent. Two teams with seven players
each pass and bounce a ball to throw it into the soccer style goal
of the opposing team.

Cycling Is another sport the enjoys much wider
popularity in Europe, than virtually the rest of the world.
Hundreds of competitions takes place every year, but the 3
unrivalled events of the year is the Tour de France [19], the Giro d'Italia
[20] and the
Vuelta a Espania [21], where thousands of
thousands of spectators line up along the often hundred kilometre
plus routes. The whole season is managed in a league like format
called the Protour[22].

National Parks - There are more than 360
national parks [23] on the continent, in line
with much you may expect from the worlds second most densely
populated continent, many are small, some less than a single km²,
but perhaps surprising to many there are also some huge expansive
national parks to explore, The Vatnajokull National Park on
Iceland is largest covering around 12,000 km² (7,500 sq miles), and
the fascinating national parks of Arctic Svalbard is not trailing far behind, while Yugyd Va National
Park in the of the Russian
Urals is largest on the mainland itself. In total the national
parks of Europe encompasses an area of around 98,000 km² (37,000 sq
miles).

Skiing

Europe is home to some fantastic ski resorts, the Alps is home of some of the best ski
resorts outside of the Rockies, and there are hundreds of them. The
largest area is Les Portes du Soleil[24], made up of 13
linked ski resorts in Switzerland and France, boasting over 650 km
of marked runs. But the fun doesn't stop in the Alps; The Scandinavian Mountains
features some of the worlds most civilized and family oriented
Skiing area's, but the lower altitude also means it's a trade-of
for shorter runs - Åre is the biggest, while way up north
Riksgränsen[25] allows
skiing well into the summer. Scotland is home of 5 ski resorts,
Nevis Range[26] has the highest
vertical drop at 1130 meters, while Glenshee[27] is the largest. A
surprising option is Sierra Nevada in Spain, fairly large, just hours
drive from the Mediterranean coast, and with a season often running
into May - you can ski in the Morning, and chill on the beach in
the afternoon. To the North the Pyrenees shared with France and Andorra also offers excellent skiing in up to
2,700 meters (8,000 ft) altitude, Domaine
Tourmalet[28] is
the largest resort in the area with over 100 kms of pistes.

Eastern Europe is seeing increasing popularity since prices are
much lower than elsewhere on the continent, the downside is that
facilities are not as expansive or modern as elsewhere in Europe,
but things are rapidly improving. Slovenia is cheap alternative in the expensive
Alps, Kranjska Gora is the largest
resort in the country. The Carpathian mountains with the higest
runs at almost 2200 meters (7200 ft) is another popular area;
Poiana
Brasov (Romania, 20 km, 11 lifts [29]) Zakopane (Poland, 30
km, 20 lifts [30]) and
Jasna (Slovakia, 29 km, 24 lifts [31]) are the largest and most
popular areas in the respective countries.

Eurozone (light-blue unilaterally adopted the euro)

The euro (Symbol: €; ISO 4217 code
EUR) is the common currency of many countries of the European
Union. One euro equals 100 cent; officially referred to as 'euro
cent' to differentiate them from their US and other counterparts.
Established in 1999 and introduced in cash form on January 1st,
2002, the euro removes the need for money exchange. As such it is
not only a boon to pan-European business, but of course also to
travellers.

The euro has not been adopted by all EU countries.
Those countries which have replaced their own national currencies
are commonly called the Eurozone. By law, all EU
countries (except Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) have to
eventually adopt the euro, with the next round of enlargement now
expected around 2012.

Outside the EU, Kosovo and
Montenegro have
unilaterally adopted the euro, but all other countries still retain
their own currencies. Euros are widely accepted in European
countries outside the Eurozone, but not universally, and at shops
and restaurants the exchange rate is rarely in your favor. (Many
hotels, though, price and accept payment in euros.) Money changers
will generally give good to excellent exchange rates for the euro,
and in a pinch they will be accepted by nearly everybody.

Since it has been only a few years since the introduction of
euro cash, some people may still use the old national currency
names. They mean euros and cents, so just substitute the two
mentally.

It's a VERY BAD idea to accept any of the obsolete currencies.
While several countries' banks will still change them into euros,
it's a lot of hassle and there is no guarantee that this will be
possible everywhere or on short notice. You should also expect to
leave your personal information with the bank as a precaution
against money laundering.

ATMs

Throughout Europe, automatic teller machines
are readily available. They will accept various European bank cards
as well as credit cards. However, be prepared to pay a fee for the
service (usually a percentage of the amount withdrawn, with a
minimum of few euro). Read the labels/notices on the machine before
using.

European ATMs do not usually have letters on the keypad. PINs
longer than 4 digits are generally no longer a problem.

Credit cards

Credit card acceptance is not as universal as in the United
States, especially in Eastern Europe, but growing steadily. Some
countries mandate that merchants check your ID for purchases of as
little as €50, and many shops will insist on ID for any
credit card transaction.

An increasing number of European countries, notably the UK,
France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Nordic countries, have
moved to a chip and PIN system, where credit cards
all have a chip built in and you have to punch in your PIN code
instead of signing a receipt. Any store that displays Visa,
Mastercard, Amex etc logos is required to accept
"traditional" sign-and-swipe cards, so be persistent if they
initially refuse, although you may need to escalate to the manager.
(With most terminals, swiping your card and simply waiting 20
seconds without entering the PIN will cause them to print out the
signing slip.) However, with self-service like gas pumps and ticket
vending machines, you may be out of luck.

Stay safe

The biggest risks to your safety in Europe like in any major
tourist area are pickpockets and muggings. Using common
sense and being aware of your surroundings can help to greatly
reduce the risk of these occurrences. Remember alcohol is an
integral part of many European cultures but overuse can lead to
violence and poor judgment! In general, bars and pubs are not a
place where alcohol causes these problems in Europe but it can end
up being a big problem on the roads.

Most European countries have very low levels of violence
compared to the United States. The main issues are drug
use and gang related violence which are most prone in Britain and France, but it's virtually
unheard of for any tourists to be involved in such issues. The few
"trouble areas" that should be avoided are the run-down suburbs of
certain urban areas (particularly in Europe's largest cities, London and Paris) and some places in eastern and southern
Europe do have much higher violent crime rates, and can be very
dangerous for non locals, but these areas shouldn't be of interest
to the average tourist. Central and Western Europe are generally
the safest regions.

Europe may be very urban and densely populated in general but as
always when traveling in rural and forested / mountainous areas
take the proper precautions. All it takes is one wrong turn down a
ski piste and you are stranded. Time to take out the cell phone.
Did you bring one?

For more information see Common scams which contains many
Europe-specific scams.

Stay healthy

There are no specific precautions required for staying healthy
in Europe as most restaurants maintain high standards of hygiene
and in the majority of countries tap water is safe to drink.
However, for more precise details on these matters as well as for
general information on emergency care, pharmaceutical regulations
and dentistry standards etc, please consult the 'Stay safe' section
on specific country articles.

EU/EEA citizens should apply for (or bring) the free European
Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which grants you access to
state-provided healthcare within the European Union as well as
Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein either at reduced cost or free
of charge, under the same terms as a resident of the country you
are visiting. If you are used to free healthcare in your own
country, remember that some member states expect patients to pay
towards their treatment, and you may be expected to do the same.
And do remember that the EHIC does not equal a travel insurance; it
doesn't cover private healthcare, the cost of mountain rescues or
repatriation to your home country. Neither does it allow you to go
abroad specifically to receive medical care.

If you are not a EU/EEA citizen, remember to buy a travel
insurance policy, while some countries does provide free emergency
care for visitors, any follow-up treatment and repatriation is your
own responsibility, and some countries expect you to foot the
entire bill for any treatment yourself - the fabled universal
healthcare system does not equal free treatment for non EU
citizens.

This is a usable article. It gives a good
overview of the region, its sights, and how to get in, as well as
links to the main destinations, whose articles are similarly well
developed. An adventurous person could use this article, but please
plunge forward and help it grow!

Western Europe according to UNESCO - International Bureau of Education. Bureau International d'Education. Oficina Internacional de Educacion. IBE. BIE. OIE. | UNESCO.org :: Official information sources on education